Oyo sets up panel to probe Ladoja

By Akin Durodola - 31.01.2008

OYO State government under Chief Adebayo Alao-Akala on Wednesday announced the setting up of judicial commission of enquiry to investigate the activities of the immediate past administration of Senator Rashidi Ladoja.

Disclosing this to newsmen while briefing them on the outcome of executive council meeting, the state Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Barrister Michael Lana, said the setting up of the panel was not to witch-hunt, but to put straight, the records of the past administration.

According to him, the approval to set up the judicial commission was taken at the executive council presided over by the state governor, Chief Alao-Akala. The composition of the judicial commission, the commissioner said, would be made known later, adding that the activities of the commission would be carried out in public.

He, therefore, urged members of the public to submit their memoranda to the commission as soon as possible. Reacting to the development, Senator Ladoja, said it was a welcome development since he had no skeleton in his cupboard.

Ladoja who spoke through his former Chief Media Officer, Alhaji Bashir Lanre Latinwo, said “if it is judicial commission of enquiry, fine, that’s exactly what we have been waiting for. “Instead of Administrative Panel, we welcome Judicial Commission of Enquiry. The governor (Ladoja) has even gone to court in respect of this. There is no qualms, we are waiting for it.

“Only anybody who has skeleton in his cupboard will be entertaining fear. It is a welcome development for the governor (Ladoja) and all of us,” Latinwo said in a telephone conversation.

Senator Ladoja, during his second coming after the nullification of his controversial impeachment by the Supreme Court, set up an Administrative Panel of Enquiry which indicted his then deputy, Chief Alao-Akala who held sway while he was on “sabbatical leave.”

The report of the panel which was gazetted immediately was however quashed by the court under the former acting Chief Judge, Justice Afolabi Adeniran on the assumption of office of Chief Alao-Akala in June last year.